1 high 5 - Indian Art News

writing
on the
wall
Dear Friends,
Predictable as it may sound but I can’t believe
December is upon us and another year of exciting art
events, ideas and thought is leading towards another.
This has been an eventful year for the Indian art
fraternity and some great exhibitions came our way.
As our final issue of this year shows it, the need of the
moment in our art world is to pave way for the new,
emerging talents while also critically reflecting upon the
masters of the tradition. We are happy to partner
with Art Stage Singapore in their promising mission
of showcasing Asian talent to the world and initiating
a dialogue. Drawing has been a special focus in the
recent art events around the city with Gallery Espace
showcasing their iconic exhibit ‘Drawing 2014’ to Aakriti
Art Gallery bringing together Ram Kumar’s rare drawings
from the 60’s.
We are looking forward to Kochi Biennale and the
excitement of Art Fair in the upcoming months.
Have a great December ahead!
Cheers
Kapil
in this
issue:
Cover Story
Freeze
High Five
Lounge
Special feature on Art Stage,
Singapore
Selected works from premiere
galleries and auction houses
Spotlight: Art
We put the spotlight on Mohan
Samant’s art.
Spotlight: Movie
Celebrating the power of
Marina Abramovich.
Red Carpet
Our selection of events for you
to go through at your convenience
Critique
Inspecting the elements of Israeli
pop art.
Kickstart
Our selection of works priced below
99,000, for those starting out on their
journey of collecting art
Tsohil Bhatia strips down the body as
an interdisciplinary artist
Exploring the heart of Rumbar’s beat
Artist Speak
The Wall Editorial interacts with
Prayag Shukla and the reminisces the
60’s period in Ram Kumar’s art.
cover story
art stage
singapore
BY T H E WA LL E D I TO R I A L T E A M
Art Fairs are the considered to be the
cornerstones of the art world. They
function as the modems between
the buyers, artists, curators and the
larger fraternity of the art market.
Asia has interested art collectors from
around the world for its eclectic mix
of contemporary and traditional forms.
With an ever widening base of artistic
projects, Art Stage Singapore has been
the highlight of art fairs in Asia.
Yason Banal
Artworld XXX Trailer
2014
Image courtesy
of the Artist
The flagship art fair of south East
Asia, Art Stage Singapore kicks off
the international annual visual arts
calendar connecting the world to
the best of global and contemporary
art. Art Stage 2015 will feature 130
galleries from 29 countries and
the fair will continue to platform
art projects which offer greater
understanding on the contexts from
which artists and artworks emerge
and develop. Several notable regional
and international artists will be in
attendance at the fair. Among them
will be celebrated collaborative duo
Gilbert and George whose works
will be exhibited by ARNDT. Known
for their belief in ‘art or all’, Gilbert
and George will be premiering their
new work. Other artists who will be
present at the fair will be Hiroshi
Senju, Renato Habulan and Guerrero
Z. Habulan. This fair will also be a
Zaki Razak and Yusof Tony
Teh Symposium
2014
Image courtesy of the
Artist
gathering point for many of Southeast
Asia’s established artists.
The exhibition attempts to break down
the concept of an exclusive gallery
space by exhibiting the artworks in
the public areas of the fairground.
The installation, Contours of a Rich
Manoeuvre by Singaporean artist
Suzann Victor will be suspended
from the ceiling of the fair ground’s
main aisle. The installation Mystic
Abode by Indian artist Paresh Maity
will be presented while Columbian
artist Fernando Botero’s monumental
sculpture, Standing Woman, will
welcome visitors at the entrance hall.
Fernando Botero
Standing Woman
Image courtesy of International Art
(back)
Heinz Mack
Vier Farbfelder, 1999
Acrylic on canvas
180 x 150 cm
“Art Stage Singapore has contributed
significantly to Singapore becoming an
international visual arts marketplace.
In 2015, we look forward to the strong
line-up of events and initiatives during
Singapore Art Week. We will continue
to work closely with Art Stage
Singapore to chart new directions for
the visual arts sector in Singapore
and the region” Says Ms Thien Kwee
Eng, Assistant Managing Director of
the Singapore Economic Development
Board (EDB).
The upcoming art fair could also prove
to be pivotal in deciding which art
fairs take a decisive lead. Art Hong
Kong will be reborn as part of the Art
Basel global brand in May-introducing
a new level of sophistication and
stardom to Asia’s art-fair circuit while
Art Stage Singapore returns with this
edition.
high 5
This month’s
selection of high
priced works from
premier galleries
and auction houses
across the country.
1
Yellow Sun
Abhishek Kumar 60X120 inches
Oil on canvas
` 150000
bestcollegeart.com
anu@bestcollegeart.com
www. bestcollegeart.com
high 5
2
Untitled
Gautam Vaghela
Oil on canvas
34 in x 34 in ` 2,25,000
storyltd.com
contact@storyltd.com
www.storyltd.com
3
Untitled
Sonal Varsheyna
Etching with Colograph
60 X 60 in (set of 9)
` 1,80,000
Aakriti Art Gallery
delhi@aakritiartgallery.com
www.aakritigallery.com
high 5
5
4
Born in Waste Bengal
(Self Portrait)
Saptarishi Das
Discarded plastic objects
on plywood
48 X 60 in
` 1,20,000
Aakriti Art Gallery
delhi@aakritiartgallery.com
www.aakritiartgallery.com
Untitled
Krishen Khanna
Conte on paper
29 x 21 in
Signed in English (lower right)
` 2,00,000 - 3,00,000 SaffronArt
auction@saffronart.com
www.saffronart.com
presents spotlight: art
the agony of the
golden moon
Mohan Samant
The Agony of the Golden Moon
c. 1960s
Mixed media on canvas
pasted on board
35.5 x 35.5 in
Signed in Devnagari (lower right)
Artist Mohan Samant was described
by Ranjit Hoskote as “the missing
link in the evolutionary narrative
of contemporary art in India.” His
works are often described as “a
gift of excess” — the partnership
of a voracious eye and a versatile
hand. Mohan Samant’s techniques,
imagery, styles and subject matter
are so vast as to defy enumeration,
argue the autors. Pressed butterflies
and dried insects vie with plastic
toys for aesthetic and iconographic
recognition on his vast canvases. His
goal was “to manipulate varied forms
and materials which on their own may
not have aesthetic possibilities.” He
was unfazed by unusual materials and
could lavish intense attention and
imagination upon the manufacture
and imagery of a single piece. His
signature processes in representation
were paper cut-outs and wire
manipulation.
Samant’s paintings are in the
collections of the Museum of Modern
Art, the National Gallery, the Renwick
Gallery in the Smithsonian Institute
and the Hirshhorn Museum in
Washington. He continued to exhibit
in India with a solo exhibition at the
Jehangir Art Gallery in Mumbai in
2000.
spotlight: movie
the
challenge of
nothingness
BY THE WALL EDITORIAL TEAM
The Artist is Present was the only
new piece in Abramović’s MoMA
retrospective, which took place from 9
March to 31 May 2010 and celebrated
her forty-year career. For all of the
gallery’s opening hours – 736, and
thirty minutes – Abramović sat on
one of two wooden chairs, initially
with a table between her and her
companion, in a performance that,
in her words, “became close to life
itself”. This was far more gruelling
than it might sound: Abramović says
that, physically and psychologically,
“The hardest thing to do is something
that is close to nothing” and much is
made of her management’s concerns
about her levels of exposure and pain
throughout.
Abramović’s willingness to push her
body to its very limits (or have it
pushed) made her one of the world’s
best known performance artists. Akers
Image Courtesy : Advaita
The Artist is Present
Genre: Documentary
Duration: 106 min
Directors: Matthew Akers, Jeff Dupre
Cast: Marina Abramovic, Ulay, Klaus
Biesenbach
Production Co: Show Of Force, AVRO
Close Up
charts Abramović’s career from the
seventies to the present as she tries
to secure some respect for her art
and her field: her tiredness with being
perceived and treated as “alternative”
and her amazement that it’s taken
“forty years of people thinking [I’m]
insane” to reach a large audience
emerge as key themes.
red carpet
artevents
dec
12 - mar 29
2nd Kochi-Muziris Biennale
Kochi and Muziris,
Kerala, India
Curator: Jitish Kallat
info@kochimuzirisbiennale.org
www.kochimuzirisbiennale.org
mar
As 2014 wraps up and we
smell the art fairs brewing,
here is a map of the
important art fairs. We are
helping you stay ahead.
may
9 -
nov
22
56th Venice Biennale
Italy
Artistic Director: Okwui Enwezor
infoartivisive@labiennale.org
www.labiennale.org
sep
10 - jan 3
13th Lyon Biennial
France
Artistic director: Thierry Raspail.
Curator: Ralph Rugof
www.labiennaledelyon.com
5 - jun 5
Sharjah Biennial 12
United Arab Emirates
Curator: Eungie Joo
info@sharjahart.org
www. sharjahart.org
feb
25 - may 24
New Museum Triennial
New York, USA
Curators: Lauren Cornell,
Ryan Trecartin
info@newmuseum.org
sep
12 - nov 22
8th GIBCA
Göteborg International Biennial of
Contemporary Art, Sweden
Curator: Elvira Dyangani Ose
contact@gibca-se.com
www.gibca-se.com
sep
5- nov 1
14th Istanbul Biennial
Turkey
Curator: Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev
www.bienal.iksv.org/en
Frieze Art Fair
oct
4-
dec
6
8th Curitiba Biennial
Brazil
General curator: Teixeira Coelho
www.bienaldecuritiba.com.br
critique
..............................................................
pieces of a kaleidoscope
Group Show
India Habitat Centre
Lodhi Road, New Delhi
BY ABHISHEK CHAUDHARY
Even if you don’t know who Andy
Warhol was or his art’s preoccupation,
I can safely say that most people are
intrigued by pop art. This is not to
suggest their interest or inclination
towards it as a form but mostly
towards its insatiable appetite of
irony. The fact that Pop Art was a
critique of the consumer society
that had risen after World War II was
obvious, and its commentary on the
effects of conformity and repetition
cannot be missed in the blatant
repetition of images and conformity of
design in the paintings themselves.
The Israeli Pop art show at India
Habitat Centre confirms that
pop art has to be steeped in the
contemporary or finds way to
contextualize subject into one. To
begin with Dganit Blechner’s work,
pop art has come to an interesting
venue of blending traditional into
Instagram appeal of paintings where
her palette is as diverse as the cities
she is preoccupied with. Dganit is
among the first artists to combine
video art into traditional artworks
but sometimes her inventiveness
is muffled by the limitation of her
popular imagery. David Gerstein was
clearly the most viewed artist in the
exhibit with people from different
spectrums finding their own meanings
in his 3-D metal sculptures known for
their colours and cut-outs. His process
is interesting and according to him,
attempts to convey a certain sense of
humour which grows more and more
convoluted but still tries to be playful.
Yuval Mahler’s work stands out for
his tongue-in-cheek experimentation
with sculptures and his variety of
art includes fibreglass, acrylic, metal
cutting and lithographs. An interesting
blend of funny and grotesque, Yuval’s
sculptures are also reflective of social
concerns in his work. Yaacov Agam
is of course a legendary name in the
kinetic art movement and his work
projects the trajectory of his thought
that introduces work in motion and
David Gerstein
Big Pleton Wave
61” x 30” in
Hand Painted Laser-Cut
Metal Cutout
His process is
interesting and
according to him,
attempts to convey
a certain sense of
humour which grows
more and more
convoluted but still
tries to be playful...
the richness in his colour palette. As a
group exhibition, the only one thing I
miss is a strong element of Israeli life
in its thematic canvas. It’s surprising
how the thirst for a cosmopolitan
perspective has dried out the national
or local reflections in these works.
This is not to stress on a political
revolutionary message in the work
or buy into the stereotypes of what
Israel or an Israeli artist is supposed
to speak but maybe a recollection, a
smell of their journey is essential.
But for anyone intrigued or even
remotely curious about pop art’s
journey, this exhibition is an
interesting view.
1. Yuval Mahler
2. David Gerstein
It’s surprising
how the thirst for
a cosmopolitan
perspective has dried
out the national or
local reflections in
these works
kickstart
Our selection
of works for
those starting
out on their
journey of
collecting art!
Head - II
Mamta Shingade
Acrylic on canvas
18 X 18 in
` 11,000
contact@indianartcollectors.com
www.indianartcollectors.com
London
Naveen Kishore
Silver gelatin print on
Ilford Pearl Surface
6 x 24 in ` 26,700
contact@storyltd.com
www.storyltd.com
Scottish Wall
Yuvan Bodhisathuvar
36 x 24 in
Paper on Plywood
` 90,000
pooja@artdistrict13.com
www.artdistrict.com
Heartsore - III
Ishita Chakraborty
Drawing Installed in Light Box
13 X 18 X 3 in
2014
` 25,000
art.aakriti@gmail.com
www.aakritiartgallery.com
Newborn
Krishna Trivedi
12 X 10 in
Pen and Ink on Paper
` 20000.00.
anu@bestcollegeart.com
www.bestcollegeart.com
photostory
freeze
All Images Courtesy: Sanjay Das
Tsohil Bhatia is an interdisciplinary performance artist, who also explores
photography as one of his mediums and scrutinizes body as a canvas.
artist’s
statement
I believe a wholesome
understanding of the self
cannot occur in isolation from
the other. While constructing
a relationship with the other, I
strip us both. We remain untold
in the veil of images. The self
is revealed in entirety. My body
then contains everything and
nothing. As I hover between
an act and a performance;
archiving narratives and staging
experiential monologues, I
create a virtual reality of the
self that is as ‘real’ as reality. I’m
interested in the extraordinary
residing in the ordinary, the
limitations of the body, spaces
of conflict and an existence that
lasts only fractions of a second,
faster than the shutter of a
camera. Tsohil Bhatia
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lounge
lends itself wonderfully to brilliant live
performances. In my multiple times
there, I have heard some wonderful
Bossa Nova, Jazz and African music
performances. Live or otherwise, Rumbar does music well. It is only here in
HKV that you will hear Robert Johnson,
Louis and Ella, the Duke and Gainsbourg and Edith Piaf in the same playlist, and most importantly, the volume
is always pleasant, never jarring.
Rumbar
Hauz Khas Village
New Delhi
BY ABHISHEK CAHUDHARY
In the heart of the bustling Hauz Khas
Village, Rumbar sits almost coyly amid
the chock-a-block of other restaurants,
bars and boutiques. Divided into two
sections- the dining area and the barRumbar specialises in South American
Tapas and French West Indies food.
Oddly, on entering the place one cannot avoid noticing the errant silver
pillar in the middle of the room, but
if one is generous enough to get past
that, the bar area is intimate in just
the right way. It is large enough for
people from neighboring tables to not
be forced into an evening of involuntary and imposed eavesdropping of
other people’s conversation, and yet
cosy enough for strangers to exchange
friendly banters. The place also has
a small stage for live performances
and they often have performances
by brilliant and and eclectic musicians. The nature of the stage and the
place-- both warm and welcoming--
It may well be so that they do music
better than food. On the other end
of the place is the restaurant section.
Painted in pleasant creams and outlined in turquoise, the Rumbar restaurant is calmer than the bar, the waiters
always warm and obliging. There are
seats in the balcony overlooking the
main street of HKV. The tables in the
balcony, although a tad bit small, is
comfortable for two if you stretch the
meaning of comfort by few inches. Its
still an excellent place for brunches,
people watching, or even a quick drink
and catching-up gossip before you
saunter back in to the bar section for a
dance.
The last time I was there, I ordered myself Serrano Ham platter and Mango
and Kiwi Gambad Salad- the former
was generous with cheese, and the
second fresh and doused in refreshingly light dressing. The bar menu is
standard, with plenty of vodka cocktail
options. I am glad that I prefer my dry
martini because they do that quite
well (although they got the standard Mojito somewhat wrong with too
much sugar once). I would not be far
off to suggest that the discrepancy between the ambition of their menu and
their product is pleasantly low-- you
will be certain to find more thing insight about the place than wrong, and
all that for a fairly reasonable price by
the standards of HKV.
artistspeak
art critic prayag
shukla shares his
reflections on
ram kumar
BY ABHISHEK CHAUDHARY
ram
kumar
Ram Kumar’s artistic
oeuvre has evolved from
abstractions and countless
experimentation with line.
AC: Please tell us a little about these
drawings that are being exhibited?
many a memories and emotions in the
viewer.
The drawings belong to the celebrated
‘Varanasi phase’ of Ramkumar’s career, which transformed his ‘figurative
period’ into a non-representational
one, and his paintings moved towards
‘abstract’ landscapic forms and images, where colors also started playing
a sensuous, luminous role, and evoked
AC: What was the period in which
these drawings were conceptualized?
These drawings of the early sixties period have a different tale to tell. Here
no landscape, how so ever abstract, is
being formed; instead what one finds
in these drawings is that they create
Untitled
Ram Kumar
in themselves a ‘demographic’ statement of the sensations and thought
and ideas, which may have been in
the artist’s mind, while he was creating these works. Thus the ultimate
formations, created in these drawings
of criss-cross and ‘merging’, ‘submerging’ lines, have a ‘reality’ of their own,
which attracts us.
AC: The concept of line has been explored by many other contemporary
and modern artists, how does Ramkumar differentiate from that?
In our modern/contemporary art
scene, lines have been used by many
artists, including the artists of Ramkumar’s generation and by the younger
ones, in various ways – strikingly,
stunningly, violently, overtly – but in
the lines of Ramkumar and likes of
Nasreen Mohammedi, one finds a refreshing course that is to use line in a
sophisticated, delicate, and mild manner, to chart, to map, and to navigate
the inner feelings, and emotions, in an
unobtrusive manner.
AC: Tell us a little about Ramkumar’s
writing and the relation between his
art?
We know that Ramkumar has written
many a stories in Hindi, with masterly perfection at one time, and with
uniqueness has given Hindi short
story, ways of rendering complex
relations, and situations, in unfailing
way. If in his stories he stands apart
from other writers, in the same way his
paintings and drawings also have his
unique and ‘separate’ imprint on them.
“Let History Cut Across Me Without Me”
at the National Gallery of Modern Art,
New Delhi, 1993.
Photo by Ram Rahman.
Thus, these drawings ‘independently’,
and intently, have unique flavor, and
flair within the ouvre of Ramkumar.
To be with them is to be with serene,
calm, and sublime feelings; and is to
enter spaces, where multiple movements, ‘happenings’, gatherings (of
sensations) are awaiting us.